Playing Blindfolded - Position and Aggression Wins

It is a fact that the best poker players are more aggressive than the average player.  The best poker players also take advantage of table position relative to the button.  Position is more important than the cards you actually hold.  Another important thing to remember is that very few pots actually end up going to a show down.  Your seating position versus other players position relative to the button has more value than your actual starting hand. 

I am proposing an experiment.  Play a low limit 3 to 5 table Sit N Go tournament blindfolded.  Well not literally but you will not be able to see your hole cards.  Put a Post it Note over the area of the screen that displays you cards and commit yourself to not taking a peek.  If you are using a poker database with a HUD, disable it for this experiment.  You must be playing completely blind.  So what is the point of this exercise?  It will force you to see opportunities that you may have been missing.  You must carefully study your opponents.  The only information you will have is how often does someone open a pot.   How much do they bet?  Do they fold often when facing a 3 bet?  Use only this information and your relative position to make your decision on how you will play your hand. 

Most of us spend too much time looking at our hole cards and not enough time studying our opponents for weakness and looking for a spot to use our position and stack to win the pot.  How many times have you been sitting in the cut-off or on the button and an aggressive players opens,  the player to the right of you calls and  you say to yourself, "I bet  if I go all in here, I will likely win" , but you look at your hand and see an 8 - 3 off suit and fold.  Because you cannot see your cards you will have to look for the spots like this and shove all in.   

As the tournament progresses you will develop a feel for playing different stack sizes as well.  Look for spots to put an overactive player to the test for his tournament life by forcing him to call your all in.  Most players do not like to call with all their chips without a premium hand if it means a loss will end the tournament or cripple them.  Look for the spots where you think you can exploit and punish the weak players at the table and make them pay to continue playing the hand.  

Remember this is just an experiment to help you view the game in a new dimension.  I really doubt that your results at the blind game will be better than when you can see you hole cards, however, when you play your next tournament where you can see your cards, use what you learn from this experiment.  I am certain this experiment will make you will be a better poker player. 

Good Luck!!!  Let me know how this experiment works for you.

Rush Poker Report - Late Position

Full 9 Max table - $.25/.50 - Mercury

Late positions includes seat 8 (Cutoff) and 9 (Button).  These are the most profitable positions to play from in any hold'em game and this is especially true at Rush Poker tables.  Opening hands from the cutoff can be just about anything from suited connectors, pairs from 55 and up, and any A. If the pot is unopened when it gets to you, open with a 3 BB raise.  This is usually enough to cause the blinds to fold and allow you to pick up the blinds.  If you get push back from the button or the blinds you can easily lay down as you do not have enough skin in the game to cause any concern.  Because Rush Poker is played at such a rapid pace you can get away with raising and picking up the blinds much easier than in a standard game.  Unless someone has a very good starting hand in the blinds they will likely just fold and move on to the next hand.

From the button in an unopened pot open open raise 3 BB or more with any 2 cards.  Yes, any 2 cards.  Unless the blinds have a real hand they will fold and move on.  Trust me, you will make money with this play because you will win the hand many more times than you will have to fold to a re-raise.  The button is by far the most profitable seat at the table.  If there is an opening raiser and you have a hand that you think is or could be the best hand at the table, raise 3x the opening players raise and see if he really has a hand.  If the opening raise is 3 or 4 BB, go ahead and make it 10 - 12 BB.  More than 50% of the time you will cause the opening raiser to fold unless they have any extremely strong hand.  Unless the opening raiser has a hand or is an extremely poor player,  why is he prepared to play out of positions for the rest of the game?  Ideally you win right there, however, if you get called by the initial raiser, he is shouting  "I don't have KK or AA".  With your position you are in a really good spot to win this hand if you remain aggressive.  There are of course those time that you get a seasoned player that is willing to slow play AA but this is not the norm. 

My winning formula for Rush Poker is boring but quite simple.  Limit your opening hand selection for all seats except the cutoff and button to large pairs - JJ through AA, and AKs.  Play the cutoff and button extremely aggressively.  Try it and let me know if it works for you.    

My win rate at Rush Poker is a fairly steady 3 BB/100 hands based on 213,000 hands.  This translates to $1.50 per 100 hands or $6.00 per hour at one table since the average number of hands per hour is 400.  I usually play 3 tables at a time.  $18.00 per hour is a very acceptable result in my opinion. 

To check out Rush Poker for yourself, Click here.

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